1. Technical Field
The invention relates to the field of RF channelizers using RF photonic modulators and filters, and more particularly to switches and filters that use closed loop resonators.
2. Background Art
RF channelizers cover wide instantaneous bandwidths (BWs) (2-18 GHz, for example), and enable systems to passively detect, classify, and locate targets from their RF emissions. State-of the-art channelizers are based on RF filter banks which are implemented via various filtering techniques, e.g., thin-film, micro-machined, discrete elements etc. In all cases typical channelized receivers occupy areas of more than 10 square inches. As such, they cannot fill system needs where truly miniature volume is a must, such as multi-beam wideband ESAs which cover multi-octaves and enable receive operations for many users, platforms and missions. Examples of such RF channelizers are U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,052,495, 6,195,187, and others.
The present Integrated Optical Channelizer (IOC) is based on extremely small, very-high Q (which is the figure of merit of a resonant circuit), integrated optical micro ring resonators.
Further, the present Integrated Optical Channelizer (IOC) approach has the unique aspect of combining on a single chip: (1) optical up-conversion, (2) extremely small, very-high Q, integrated optical micro ring resonators and (3) optical down-conversion to achieve RF channelization over a wide RF band. As will be shown, the present IOC approach does not require new “physics” or even new fabrication techniques.
While the above cited references introduce and disclose a number of noteworthy advances and technological improvements within the art, none completely fulfills the specific objectives achieved by this invention.